Low-carb diets lead to birth defects?

Photo credit: Pregnant Girl Eating Cake,by FoodandYou

Low levels of folate in women may be due to lack of bread, officials say

ATLANTA - Blood levels of folate in young women are dropping, a disturbing development that could lead to increased birth defects and may be due to low-carb diets or the popularity of unfortified whole-grain breads.

Government health officials could only speculate on the reasons but called the backslide in this important B vitamin disturbing.

It's not clear how the decline in folate levels has affected newborns, but preliminary data suggest the dramatic declines in neural tube defects seen in the late 1990s may have leveled off by 2004, said officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is a cause of substantial concern, said Dr. Nancy Green, medical director for the March of Dimes, which campaigns for birth defects prevention.

Folate is a naturally occurring B vitamin. An artificial version, which is more easily metabolized by the body, is folic acid.

Years ago, scientists concluded that folate deficiencies contributed to the occurrence of serious birth defects of the spine and brain, known as neural tube defects.

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Category: birth defects, folic acid, Vitamins